KZWA


KZWA is a radio station broadcasting an Urban Adult Contemporary format serving Lake Charles, Louisiana and licensed to Moss Bluff, Louisiana, United States. The station is currently owned by and licensed to B&C Broadcasting Ltd. The station's studios are located at the intersection of Enterprise Boulevard and I-10 just east of downtown Lake Charles, and its transmitter is southeast of Ragley, Louisiana.

History

The construction permit that would become KZWA was requested in 1988. It was granted on March 22, 1992. The station was licensed to Lake Charles, LA. The permit was transferred to the current ownership on November 23, 1992. The permit was extended a few times, and the facility tweaked. The station filed for a license to cover its construction permit in April 1994. This was granted on June 22, 1995. The original facility was a class C2 with 50,000 watts at 150 meters. A Continental Transmitter fed three inch coaxial line into a four bay Shiveley antenna. The station had a directional antenna located on a tower southwest of Lake Charles. The station was listenable in Lake Charles, LA as well as in the eastern portions of the Beaumont-Orange-Port Arthur area as "Live Vibe 105".
In 1999 the licensee of a Houston, Texas, area station conceived of a plan to upgrade their station. It required moving several stations to new frequencies and locations. An agreement was made with the owner of KZWA to file for and relocate to a new site near Ragley, LA. The changed facility was on 104.9 MHz, licensed to Moss Bluff, Louisiana, with power of 25,000 watts at 100 meters. As part of the agreement the benefiting party paid for the new site, site preparation, power line access, a building, tower, lines and antennas and new microwave equipment to link the studio feed to the tower site. Once the new site was on air, pieces of equipment from the old site were moved to the Ragley site so that KZWA had two of most all equipment.